Before the Shadows
by Ratha
Summary: Was Blues always so secretive and aloof before his disappearance? Or was he different? Here's my version of how he might have been...


**Before the Shadows**   
_by Ratha_

_Part One: The Sixth Day_

**_"DOMINO!!!!!!"_**

Domino Wily winced at the bellow that reverberated throughout the lab and she wondered what her father was upset about _this_ time. Sighing in resignation, she saved her work and pushed her chair away from the computer desk, then stood up and went in search of her father. "You bellowed, Vater?" she quipped drily when she found him in the main lab. 

Dr. Albert Wily glared at her and jabbed a finger at a computer screen that was playing a CG picture of him doing the macarena. "What the hell is this?!" 

She glanced at Dr. Thomas Light, who was silently snickering nearby and trying to hide it. "It looks like you doing the macarena to me," she deadpanned. 

Wily's glare darkened. "Don't be cute." 

"Would you rather I be ugly?" she replied innocently. 

Light made an odd noise that sounded like a muffled laugh. 

Wily glared at his partner, then turned back to Domino. "How many times have I told you not to play with the computers?" 

"Thirty-two thousand, four hundred eighty-seven times," she promptly announced with a faint grin. 

Her father didn't seem pleased to have the exact count. Nor was he pleased with his friend's muffled laughter. He glared at them both, then paused when he saw Domino's smile. "No. Don't give me that look," he snapped. "You are not getting off the hook with that this time." 

She pouted in response, giving him 'puppy-dog' eyes. 

"And quit it with the eyes! I hate it when you do the eye thing!" Wily glared at her, but it wasn't as fierce as he'd hoped. "Stop it! Stop it right now! Haltestelle!" 

She abandoned the puppy-dog eyes and gave him a sweet, heart-melting smile. 

"That's even worse!" Wily glared at her for all of two seconds, then he sighed in defeat and smiled faintly at her. "Gehen. Get out of here. Go back to whatever diabolical plot you're working on right now." 

She grinned at her father before dashing off. 

Light chuckled softly as he watched her run off. "I don't know which is funnier: her pranks or the way she talks her way out ot trouble." 

Wily glared at his partner. "You weren't any help, Thomas." 

"Of course not." 

Neither scientist really minded Domino's antics, despite their momentary anger at them. It brought a welcome break in the monotony of their work. 

Domino Wily had been living with her mother in America until recently, when Domino's mother died and Domino had been sent to live with her father. She took after her father in intelligence, having designed and built the popular Metools at only eleven years old. Now at twelve, she was currently assisting the two elder scientists in their latest project, along with working on her own. Blonde-haired and blue-eyed, she had a friendly, roguish grin that put people at ease when they spoke to her and her open, guileless personality earned her many friends. It had already won over both Light and her father, whom she had never seen until she came to Japan to live with him.   


* * *

  
Domino frowned at the screen in front of her, tapping her chin thoughtfully and whistling absently. 

"Don't do that," Wily said gruffly from where he and Light were working on their project. "It's annoying." 

She grunted noncommittally, not really paying attention. "Vater, Dr. Light, I have a question." 

"Yes, Domino?" Light replied, both scientists pausing to look at her. 

"Well, I noticed you're using synthetic DNA based on yours, and I was just wondering...Who's the mother?" she asked, looking at them innocently with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. 

Wily made a choking sound and Light made an odd strangled sound. 

"Let's not get into that," Light said at length. 

Domino snickered and turned back to the computer. "You two are funny. I can't wait to see what personality traits he gets from the both of you." 

"It'll be our luck and he turns out like you," Wily muttered. 

"Good, then I'll have someone to tease you two with." 

"Gott forbid."   


* * *

  
Domino whistled absently to herself as she worked at her computer, for once the only person in the main lab because her father and Light were at a science conference. She was so intent on her work that she almost didn't notice a slight tingling in her mind, what she jokingly referred to as her spider sense. 

However, she did notice the tingling and spun around, warily searching the area with her eyes and her mind. Someone else was in the lab with her. But where? Seeing no one and sensing no threat, she hesitantly called out mentally. **_Hello? Is someone there?_** She wasn't expecting an answer, so she was startled when she got one. 

The robot on the table twitched slightly. Just a small movement of his left hand, but it was enough to catch her attention. 

She focused on him immediately and stared with wide eyes. "Oh my god..." she whispered, then hesitantly approached the robot, watching him intently as he moved again, this time a flickering of his eyelids. How could he be moving?! He wasn't even supposed to have been activated yet! "Oh my god..." she whispered again. She reached out to touch the robot's shoulder, only to jerk it back with a startled squeak when his eyes snapped open and focused on her. 

"Where am I?" he asked in a low voice. 

She blinked, then replied, "Light/Wily Labs. Do you know who you are?" 

Slowly, with careful precision, he sat up and turned to the side so his legs swung over the side of the metal table. "I am DRN 000: Blues," he replied calmly. 

She nodded. "And do you know who your creators are?" 

"Dr. Thomas Xavier Light and Dr. Albert W. Wily." He frowned at her. "You are not them." 

She grinned faintly. "I'm Domino Wily, Dr. Wily's daughter. Vater and Dr. Light are at a science conference right now and won't be back until late tonight." 

Blues nodded acceptance of that. 

She smiled and held out her hand. "Come on. I'll show you around the compound, okay?" 

He looked at her hand, then silently slid off the table and took her hand. 

Domino was not a religious person, far from it, but it did not escape her that today was the sixth day, when Man was created.   


* * *

  
_Glossary_   
_Vater-_ Father   
_Haltestelle-_ Stop   
_Gehen-_ Go   
_Gott-_ God 


End file.
